Vala was almost done, the boxes all sat neatly taped up and each one was labelled. She wasn't sure who'd labelled them, she didn't remember doing it herself, but sure enough each box was labelled clearly in Goa'uld. Nobody had helped her as far as she knew, she'd done all this by herself, unless Daniel had labelled them for her. She narrowed her eyes at the boxes, briefly wondering if Goa'uld was the best choice. What if Stargate Command rejected them thinking them to be dangerous? It was too late now though and Vala only had one cupboard left to empty. The wormhole was due to activate in fifteen minutes, in which time she had one chance to have everything ready. If she wasn't finished, she wasn't going, simple as that - all this 'stuff' had to be packed away.

In the corner of her eye, she noticed that one of the boxes was leaking from its edges and seams. What the hell was that? She hadn't packed anything that could leak? She tried to ignore it, that was clearly the best solution, ignore it and it would go away. Whatever had spilled, already had, and it was hardly going to get worse.

Vala turned her attention to the final cupboard again, it was stuffed with jewels and trinkets. She knew that when she opened the door, it would all come spilling out at her. Gold chalices, studded with rubies, crystal orbs, necklaces, the spoils of her less than honest life. There would be no time to pack them properly, the cupboard was too big. She'd just stuff the box haphazardly and hope for the best. When she opened the cupboard though, there was no dazzling sight. Nothing sparkled, nothing shone. She'd expected the lights to refract off every gem's cut edge and the entire contents to glitter and wink at her invitingly. But everything inside had become tainted and dulled. Green and grey mould collected on every piece and precious metals were rusted. Panic set in and frantically Vala started to search for anything that had survived, tossing coins and strings of jewels aside, scraping at the shelves with her fingernails and sweeping everything to one side for one thing, one thing that might have somehow avoided the ruin that had affected the rest of it. Hidden at the back was a small jewelry box, inlaid with an intricate marquetry design of rare woods and gold leaf. Vala smiled when she found it, wiping away the mossy film that covered it with her sleeve. The lock had long since rusted over but everything inside was safe, it had to be. She tried to prise it open but time was ticking on.

She started to shove all the treasure into the cardboard box, sweeping it in with her arm, mindless to any further damage she might cause, then the box behind her caught her eye again. The box that had leaked. She was wrong, it had leaked more, beneath the box a pool of thick red liquid spread across the floor. This was all getting too much for her, there was a mess of green decayed and rusty treasure scattered all over the room now and the box was literally seeping blood.

This wasn't going to happen, there just wasn't enough time. Panic was setting in as she hauled the box towards the door, her hands were stained with blood now and she left a smudged trail of it behind her. She had to somehow get rid of the box and clean up all of this mess in ten minutes now. It just couldn't be done. Vala slumped down against the box, defeated as she sat on the bloody floor. She went to bury her face in her hands, realising too late that whatever she touched, the mess just got worse. There was blood everywhere, she had to give up. What was the point? She couldn't clear all this, there was no way, and she was just making it worse.